By:Nick Buglione
Trigen has run the county's Central Utilities Plant in Mitchel Field since 1987, as well as a 57-megawatt generator it built there in 1991, and provides heating and cooling for the Nassau Coliseum, the Nassau University Medical Center and other nearby buildings.
The power company offered its proposal in response to LIPA's request earlier this year for a 79.9-megawatt electric-generating unit, and held an open house at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City last Wednesday to inform the public of its plan. "We've reached out to a lot of local legislators and community leaders," said David Petty, Trigen plant manager. "We feel good about the project."
Questions raised at the open house ran the gamut, covering the plant's impact on the surrounding environment, emissions and sound output.
Although she admitted knowing nothing of the plans, Betsy Gulotta, conservation project manager with Friends of the Hempstead Plains, has already voiced reservations about what the project would mean to the surrounding ecology. "Any type of development like that presents a concern to us, until we find what kind of impact there will be," said Gulotta, a retired biology professor. "We have to take a closer look."
The proposed site is not far from the last two remaining parcels of what was once known as the Hempstead Plains, the expansive prairie that once dominated Long Island's landscape. Only 60 to 80 acres remain today, Gulotta said.
An environmentalist hired by Trigen to assess the proposed site, however, said a new plant would have minimal impact on the ecology. "Once human activity increases around the site, [the wildlife] will adapt and move on," said Heather Striffler, adding that the site has already been disturbed and overgrown with weeds.
Some 14 species of plants and nearly 50 different birds were identified at the site during the environmental assessment.
Recalling a time before the encroachment of the Nassau Coliseum and Marriott Hotel, Gulotta believes development sometimes only leads to more development. "This was once just open grassland," she said.
Larry Green, biochemist and president of the Salisbury Civic Association, said he wants to know whether the plant's air emissions will pose a threat to his neighborhood, which lies to the northeast of the proposed site. "On the surface of it, it looks like they're well within the limits of everything," Green said. "I want to delve into this a lot more deeply."
Trigen officials said the plant's emissions will fall well below state and federal standards, since it will be powered mostly by cleaner-burning natural gas. The plant will at times run on oil, but no longer than 720 hours a year, they said.
The 1 1/2-acre plant would be erected on the north side of the Central Utilities Plant on Charles Lindbergh Boulevard. It would include a 145-foot stack, alongside the 120-foot one already rising from the current plant. The building would be 65 feet tall at its highest point.
"The building itself will mask most of the sound," Petty said. And with the "nearest residence almost half a mile away," sound shouldn't be an issue, he added.
Having received a number of proposals, it's now up to LIPA to decide whether Trigen's plan gets the green light. LIPA Chairman Richard Kessel wouldn't elaborate on how many proposals the authority has received, but said that one would be chosen in the next few months.
If its plan is picked, Trigen said, construction would likely begin in June and be finished by May 2005.
The request for a new 80-megawatt power plant is just one measure LIPA is taking to catch up with Long Island's ever-increasing energy demands, Kessel said. "These facilities are small facilities that we're going to need for summer [2005] to bridge the gap until 2007," he said. LIPA hopes that by then a much more significant power source, such as an undersea cable stretching from Connecticut or a larger power plant, will be in place.
The Island's electrical consumption has grown some 14 percent in the last five years. "If we don't build new plants, we're not going to be able to keep the lights on," Kessel said. "Nobody wants power plants, but everybody wants air conditioners."
